1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to fluid loading systems, and more particularly to loading systems for transferring fluid between an offshore buoy and a marine tanker.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The production of oil and gas from offshore wells has developed into a major endeavor of the petroleum industry, and this growth has lead to the development of means for transporting petroleum products from offshore wells to shore-base refineries or storage facilities. Many of the wells are being drilled and completed in water where the use of marine tankers of very large capacity constitutes the most practical and efficient method of transporting the petroleum products. At some of these wells the water is too shallow for the marine tanker to load at the location of the well so that the petroleum must be transported by large diameter pipes or hoses to a terminal or a floating buoy several hundred or thousand feet from the well. Usually it is more convenient to transport the petroleum from the well area to the floating buoy in a single conduit having a diameter considerably larger than the diameter of the manifolds of the marine tankers, than it is to employ several small diameter pipes or hoses. The smaller hoses tend to tangle and become damaged, and a plurality of smaller pipes is expensive to install.
Each of the loading manifolds of a marine tanker is usually much smaller in diameter than the single conduit which is connected to the terminal or floating buoy. In order to decrease the loading time required to fill a marine tanker some of the existing terminals include a plurality or bank of articulated loading arms each having the inboard end of the arm connected to the single supply conduit, and with the outboard end of each arm connected to a separate marine tanker manifold. This plurality of articulated loading arms increases the expense of the installation and the complexity of control of the loading operation. What is needed is a single large-diameter loading arm having the inboard end connected to the supply conduit and having apparatus for connecting the outboard end to a plurality of marine tanker manifolds.